Various types of electrical connectors are known in art for interconnecting board components (e.g., printed circuit boards (“PCB's”)) in an edge-to-edge arrangement. Reference is made, for example, to the Series 9159 horizontal socket board-to-board connectors from AVX Corp. This series of surface mount connectors are offered in a 2-way through a 6-way configuration, and are particularly suited for abutting, coplanar connection of PCB's. A plug component with a horizontal plug having first contacts molded therein is surface mounted to an edge of a first board, while a socket component having a matching number of contacts is surface mounted to an edge of a second board. During the surface mounting process, the respective components are aligned over contact pads on the PCB with conventional pick-and-place (i.e., vacuum transfer) equipment and subsequently soldered to the board.
Many board-to-board applications do not need or cannot accommodate a multi-way connector (e.g., because of limited board space), and multiple single-way connectors are used. This single-way connector configuration, however, is not without drawbacks. The single-way connector body (molding) is often too small of a surface for adequate attachment by the suction nozzle of the pick-and-place machine and other more tedious and time-consuming placement techniques must be used. Precise alignment and orientation of the single-way components to ensure mating connection between adjacent PCB's is also problematic.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,155,863 proposes a solution for increasing the surface area of a multi-way connector component to a size sufficient for attachment of a vacuum transfer nozzle wherein a frangible hermetic seal is placed over an opening in the connector housing so that the nozzle can draw a suction on the respective seal surface. Once the component has been mounted, the seal is broken and the opening becomes free for engagement by a mating component. This proposal is not, however, suitable for single-way connectors.
Accordingly, a need exists for an improved single-way connector assembly that is suitable for conventional vacuum transfer mounting processes on a PCB.